Sony Moving Away from Cell-based PS4


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Interesting article:

Technology writer Hiroshige Goto has shared a few insider tips on the future of the PlayStation brand in the latest installment of his Weekly Overseas News column at Impress Watch.

Previously, Goto reported that Sony was looking both into a Cell-based and Intel Larrabee-based architecture for PlayStation 4.

Regarding Larrabee, in summer 2008, Sony began looking at the architecture, apparently because high ranking officials at Sony had expressed interest. Now, it appears that Larrabee is out of contention due to 3D graphics pipeline performance issues and low power efficiency.

Regarding Cell, some time in 2008, the company asked game publishers what they'd want of a Cell-based PS4 in terms of number of SPU co-processors and what kind of programming difficulties they've been having with the current design.

According to Goto, Sony, IBM and Toshiba recognized some of the problems programmers were having with Cell and, early on, came up with a couple of plans for fixing the issues. Included in these was a plan for something that was at one point called "SPU2." This new version of the SPU would shift the 256 kilobyte local store space that's included on each SPU chip into the role of a hardware management cache, allowing the SPUs direct access to main memory and allowing programmers to program for a single memory space, similar to a standard PC CPU (for Japanese readers, the original article explains this in much greater detail).

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/12/25/ps4_cell/

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Personally I'm hoping they will come up with yet another super convoluted CPU that baffles a lot developers, else I'll be disappointed.

Perhaps a CPU made of stone, then developers will have to master the wind and let wind erosion do its work? The possibilities!

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No, please don't move away from the Cell - we've got enough BC issues as it is. Emulating the Cell will be impossible on a regular quad or octo core machine of today's time, it's simply too different. Adjusting the Cell in such a way that will make it easier for developers, while maintaining backwards compatibility, is best. Fact of the matter is, there is a LOT resting on the shoulders of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as to how they handle the transition from digitally purchased titles on the PS3 to the PS4 - I'd really like to be able to play these on the PS4.

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Theres life in the cell, they should stick with it. BC with PS3 will be a huge selling point.

Agreed. Perhaps modifying the Cell architecture to feature two control regions each with four processing cores. Therefore we get three smaller Cells working alongside each other rather than the bottleneck of one enormous cell. Either way, Sony just needs to make the console less processor heavy and more GPU based. Get the bottleneck off the GPU and RAM and make that processor work to its full extent.

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I have a feeling ditching Cell will **** more people off than it will please. Developers have already put in the work to learn how to write games for it. Keeping it similar (including modifying it so its easier to use) would be a smart move. That way the learning curve for the PS4 is much smaller than it was for the PS3.

I just hope they don't go all motion controls. I like them but I don't want to be forced to do it. I still prefer casually sitting/lying and not waving my arms around like a fool.

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Certain games are now showing what people originally thought it could do, things like Killzone and Uncharted 2 are using the SPU's are Sony intended. Sadly it seems to have taken a while to get to this point but going forward things should get interesting :)

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I believe this is the reason why Sony sold the Cell technique to Toshiba; Toshiba has now developed something they call the Spurs Engine, which is the SPEs from thr Cell without the PowerPC core.

This leaves Sony free to go with IBM's new Power7 CPU (which is supposedly a beast unlike anything) and still have familiarity for developers (which, tbh, if they went into the same trap THRICE...)

So let's not get all doomsday-y just because Sony isn't going to single-handedly keep IBM making Cells :p

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I have a feeling ditching Cell will **** more people off than it will please. Developers have already put in the work to learn how to write games for it. Keeping it similar (including modifying it so its easier to use) would be a smart move. That way the learning curve for the PS4 is much smaller than it was for the PS3.

I just hope they don't go all motion controls. I like them but I don't want to be forced to do it. I still prefer casually sitting/lying and not waving my arms around like a fool.

+9000

It seems a shame, developers putting all that time and effort into developing for the Cell processor and Sony saying, "F**k it".

I only think the Cell processor was hard to develop for was because the development kit that Sony provided was pretty weak.

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I don't think that they will be ditching it as they have already invested a **** load into it. They will most likely just improve the cell processor and put that in the PS4 and by then no developer should be complaining about how they don't know how to code for the PS4 or PS3 *looks at Valve :hmmm: *

PS4 is 2-3 years away, we don't know anything yet and they don't know anything yet.

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Stick with the Cell!

I agree, why Sony wants for PS4 a new arquitecture? it could be a pain in the ass for game developers. Imagine all these developers trying to build from scratch each game for PS3 and PS4 because they are from different processors and arquitecture. SONY should stick completely with cell processors and for PS4 just upgrade to a more powerful cell and also a better graphic card.

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You've really got to read the full thing

However, he's recently started hearing about other plans. While he's unable to get into the specifics, at a broad level, the new plans call for a PC-like multicore setup.Goto also provided a few guesses as to when we'll see the next generation of hardwaree. He believes that because Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, are looking into architecture solutions now in 2009, the next generation will come around 2012. The reason for this is that it takes 24 months to take a system from concept to production.

Just the usual rumour mongering pre-new hardware generation.

No doubts CEO's at top level will be looking at various solutions, you'd be off your head not to have various prototypes for the PS4 to make sure when it launches it's market equipped with the latest/necessary technology and forward technology compatible.

These devices stay on shelves for a long time, and while they do receive upgrades, slim designs sometimes slightly different internals, they need to ALL play every game (current gen game).

I foresee a modified CELL, for as much flak as it got early on you can't deny Sony 1st party developers are squeezing the most impressive results out of it this gen technically, 3rd party developers are getting to know it better and something along the same lines helps them next generation which I have no doubts Sony have in mind - They don't want another PS4 starting with Madden 30FPS on PS4, 60FPS on New Xbox.

Plus BC, as much as it's harped on as unnecessary (by Sony PR), the PS3 will build up an impressive library and Sony shouldn't need to have the cost cutting plans in mind with the PS4 they needed with the PS3 sticking with familiar but slightly upgraded tech - Plus I still think you're seeing emulated PS2 games one day, PS1 games are milking it in.

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Apart from the Blu Ray, I see the PS4 getting a pretty big upgrade once again.

Cell2 (but reworked to be more like a core processor)

SSD (instead of the internal HD)

Trichannel DDR3 RAM

obviously a better nVidia based video card

Smaller design then the PS3 Slim

Massive upgrade to PSN & PS Home (or scrap home and replace it with Home 2.0 where its just.. not sucky)

Backwards compatibility with PS1, PS2 and PS3

User customizable themes for the dash

That's all I would like to see from Sony...

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Apart from the Blu Ray, I see the PS4 getting a pretty big upgrade once again.

Cell2 (but reworked to be more like a core processor)

SSD (instead of the internal HD)

Trichannel DDR3 RAM

obviously a better nVidia based video card

Smaller design then the PS3 Slim

Massive upgrade to PSN & PS Home (or scrap home and replace it with Home 2.0 where its just.. not sucky)

Backwards compatibility with PS1, PS2 and PS3

User customizable themes for the dash

That's all I would like to see from Sony...

No one will use nVidia again.

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